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Materials
It is always worth checking your local sewing store for fly tying materials. A good example is rubber legs. The elastic waistbands sold in sewing stores can provide a hefty supply of legs in different colors at very little cost. Some of the rubber strands in waistbands is very fine and therefore makes excellent legs on very small patterns. I once found some in black that provided me with a lifetime supply of small diameter legs for beetle and ant patterns. You can even touch them up with a permanent marker if you need legs in a variegated pattern.
Techniques
One of the hardest things to learn when beginning to tie is to keep stray hackle fibers from getting caught in the head wraps of the fly. The problem is made worse if you crowd the head, something almost all beginning tyers tend to do.
In the next issue we will share a tip for preventing this from happening, but for now here is one tip for dealing with the problem if it has already occurred. Use a hackle guard to cover the hackle fibers at front of the fly. Allow only the stray, unruly ones caught in the head wraps to protrude. Then singe off the stray stuff with a lighter. The result won't win you any tying awards, but the fish don't care and it will give you unobstructed access to the eye of the hook.
Tools and Equipment
Have trouble keeping spools of floss from unraveling all over the place? The niches cut in the ends of the spools work fairly well, but they tend to fray the floss and often come undone. You can buy plastic spool covers that will keep things neatly in place and they work very well. An inexpensive source for lots of these is a plastic bookbinding strip that can be found at the local office supply store. Just cut the plastic strip into sections and you have a nice supply of spool covers. The strips are available in a number of sizes to cover whatever spools you have on hand.
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